Pre-season can be a season of opportunity, and certainly was for Eric Eschweiler when he pulled on a Sudbury Wolves jersey on Thursday.

Called up from the Rayside-Balfour Canadians of the NOJHL, the fleet-footed right-winger from Cambridge, Ont. may or may not end up in Sudbury’s long-term plans, but he certainly made the most of his chance, scoring a goal and playing several shifts of high-paced hockey in a 4-3 exhibition loss to the Soo Greyhounds at Sudbury Community Arena.

“I’m really happy to be here,” smiled Eschweiler, 19. “I do have some major-junior experience and two years ago, I did play in the QMJHL, so I’m really happy to be back at this level and to be taking advantage of it and having fun.”

With both teams missing several players who were regulars last year, either for NHL training camps or injuries, the Wolves added Eschweiler and Levi Siau, from the French River Rapids, to the roster this week. Siau fell ill, but Eschweiler was able to dress and spent much of the game on a line with Nolan Hutcheson, who set up his second-period tally, and Shane Bulitka.

The Wolves outshot their rivals 40-23, but ultimately fell in a shootout.

Quinton Byfield and Anthony Tabak also scored for the Wolves, while Jake McGrath made 20 stops for Sudbury. Zack Trott, twice, and Alex Johnston supplied goals in regulation and Dominic Mufarreh had the shootout winner for the Soo, while Ethan Taylor and Tyler Johnson made 17 and 20 saves, respectively.

“It’s never fun to not get the two points, but we have to be quite happy with the way we were playing tonight,” Wolves associate coach Darryl Moxam said. “Things are starting to come, we had a great week of practice this week, and you could see that guys are starting to play as a five-man unit out there and we’re telling guys to take pucks to the net, our shots were up a little bit, which is one of the goals we had today and they achieved that, but we have to start finding ways to get two points before the regular season starts, because at the end of the day, that’s all that counts.”

The Wolves put pressure on their visitors early, and indeed for most of the opening period, emerging with a 12-5 shot lead, but it was the Soo’s Trott who drew first blood when fired a rebound past McGrath at the 1:40 mark. Cole MacKay and Cullen McLean assisted.

After giving up a couple of chances to start the second, the Wolves again took the play to Hounds for much of the frame, but Taylor looked sharp in stopping Quinton Byfield on a partial break and his linemate, Owen Robinson, on a two-on-one rush.

Sudbury finally found the back of Taylor’s net when Eschweiler took a centring feed from Hutcheson and ripped a shot past the Soo goalie at 8:53. Cole Candella had the other helper.

“I just wanted to play a simple game, I just wanted to make sure I did my job as a right-winger, getting pucks out and going hard after the puck in the position and in the system the Wolves want,” Eschweiler said. “I felt I did that tonight, so I’m really happy with myself and the team, as well.”

He was pleased, too, with the feedback from his coaches.

“They told me I played really well, so just keep it up and perform well tomorrow.”

That’s when the Wolves travel to Timmins for a neutral-site game against the QMJHL’s Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. Game time at McIntyre Arena is 7 p.m.

“It’s going to be funny, because I remember playing them when I played for Gatineau,” Eschweiler said. “It will be like a little flashback.”

Byfield put Sudbury ahead when he took a centring pass from Macauley Carson on the rush and put a low, well-aimed shot past Tyler Johnson, who had taken over in the Hounds net moments earlier, at 13:27 of the middle stanza.

The locals looked solid in killing most of a five on three, but McGrath dropped a puck from his glove near the side of his net, just as the second penalty expired, allowing the nearby Johnston to score an easy one at 19:11. Sudbury native Brett Jacklin and Rory Kerins assisted.

Hutcheson was called for a head hit on Anthony Demeo and assessed a match penalty early in the third, allowing the Hounds’ Trott to pot a quick power-play goal just 1:27 in. MacKay and McLean assisted again.

The Wolves killed off the rest of the penalty, however, and returned fire when Tabak took a pass from Peter Stratis and fired from the dot to Johnson’s left for a power-play goal of his own at 10:46.

Sudbury had a flurry of chances on late power plays, but couldn’t find the twine again before the horn.

Blake Murray, for Sudbury, and Joe Carroll, for the Soo, had shootout goals before Muffareh slipped the game-winner past McGrath.

“I thought our young guys actually did a pretty good job,” Soo head coach John Dean said. “It was pretty clear that we got outplayed, but I thought there was lots of bright spots with the young guys and it’s our first game, so a lot of guys are getting their jitters out and all of a sudden, it’s different – a coach is blowing the whistle down in a drill, but in a game, it keeps going. But I’m very happy with the young guys all in all and the most exciting thing for the staff is we can finally hit some game tape and evaluate and teach.”

Imports Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, for Sudbury, and Roman Pucek, for the Hounds, were also away for NHL training camps. Both are expected to be key contributors for their teams this season.

“Eric was great tonight, our young guys are playing great, and that’s what this is all about right now,” Moxam said. “You have a bunch of guys on the back end, a bunch of young guys, and we’re short forwards tonight, so there was lots of ice for everyone to go around. These are the kinds of games that give those guys an opportunity to show us what you have.”